"We are thrilled to announce our 4th Annual 'Next Women of Country' Tour and partner with the amazing Sara Evans," said Leslie Fram, SVP of Music
& Talent, CMT. "This tour was created to give emerging female artists a stage to play on and this year we are proud to welcome
"I absolutely love that CMT champions female artists with the Next Women of Country Tour and am so honored to be headlining it in 2018," said Sara. "I can't wait to hit the road with
and Kalie. They are both incredible singers, songwriters, and overall artists and we're going to have a blast!"
2017 was a landmark year for
Sara Evans - the multi-platinum selling country music star launched Born To Fly Records where she released Words, her "impressive album....which captures an artist in full musical flight" (Associated Press). The heartfelt album features fourteen separate female songwriters, including Evans, Ashley Monroe, Caitlyn Smith, Hillary Lindsey, Hillary Scott, Liz Henberger, and Sonya Isaacs.
First launched in 2013, CMT's "Next Women of Country" continues to grow with confident, fun and talented female singer/songwriters who are taking the country music world by storm. The campaign emphasizes undiscovered female artists and several alumnae - Kacey Musgraves, Brandy Clark,
Cassadee Pope and
Ashley Monroe included - have achieved both commercial and critical acclaim. Since 2015, the franchise has promoted female-fueled tours at more than 40 dates with Kelsea Ballerini, Brandy Clark, Lindsay Ell, Jana Kramer, Martina McBride,
Jennifer Nettles and Tara Thompson.
ABOUT SARA EVANS: Multi-platinum entertainer
Sara Evans is at the top of her game. With five No. 1 Country singles including "No Place That Far," "Suds In The Bucket, "A Real Fine Place To Start," "Born to Fly," and "A Little Bit Stronger," which spent 2 weeks in the top spot and was certified platinum by the R.I.A.A., Sara thrills audiences across the U.S. playing close to 100 shows each year and in 2018 will headline the
"CMT Next Women of Country presents Sara Evans All The Love Tour featuring
RaeLynn and Kalie Shorr" starting February 12 in New York City. Her "stunning, country voice" (Rolling Stone) has earned her the prestigious Academy of Country Music Top Female vocalist accolade as well as numerous American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, Country Music Association, CMT and Grammy Awards nominations. In addition, the CMA awarded Video of the Year honors for her hit chart-topping single, "Born to Fly" from her double-platinum album of the same name. Evans' discography also includes the platinum-selling studio albums Real Fine Place and
Restless and the gold-certified No Place That Far. Sara continues to forge a bold, creative path with the launch of
Born To Fly Records, distributed by Sony RED, and her highly anticipated eighth studio album,
Words, which debuted at #2 on Billboard's Top Country Albums Chart. The project has been dubbed the album of her lifetime and "captures an artist in full musical flight" (Associated Press).
In addition to a prolific country music career, Sara is an accomplished author, lifestyle blogger and Red Cross ambassador who in 2008 was presented with the national Crystal Cross award for her work with the disaster-relief organization.
For more information on Sara Evans, visit
SaraEvans.com and
ARealFinePlace.com and engage with her on
Facebook,
Twitter and
Instagram.
ABOUT RAELYNN: Recently named a "Best Country Album of 2017" by both UPROXX and Rolling Stone,
RaeLynn released her Warner Bros. / Warner Music Nashville #1 debut WildHorse, produced by
Jimmy Robbins and Nicolle Galyon, earlier this year to substantial critical acclaim. Lead single "Love Triangle" tells her personal story in a way that "is a raw and emotional account of what it's like to be the child of divorced parents" (People Magazine), which media and fans immediately gravitated to, evidenced by the single hitting Top 10 sales per spin while the music video has racked up over 11.5 million views since its release. The remainder of the 12-track album, 11 of which (including the widely-praised "Lonely Call") were co-written by
RaeLynn herself, is a broader look into her life over the past few years since her breakthrough on NBC's hit show, The Voice.
Selected as a 2017 "Country Artist to Watch" by Pandora, Napster and Billboard and a CMT Next Women of Country inductee,
RaeLynn has tallied 195 million plus cumulative career streams. She is poised to follow in the early success of her Top 10, GOLD-certified song "God Made Girls" that has tallied more than 1 million track equivalent sales and has been streamed more than 60 million times. The breakout star has earned numerous award nominations including the Academy of Country Music Awards' New Female Vocalist of the Year, Radio Disney Music Awards' Favorite Country Song and The Freshest! - Best New Artist Country, and most recently CMT Music Awards' Breakthrough Video of the Year, her second in that category in addition to a Female Video of the Year nod. She recently announced her partnership with Too Faced Cosmetics and the RaeLynn-inspired "Life's A Festival" collection will launch in February 2018. Over the past several months, she has performed on several national TV shows including TODAY, Late Night with
Seth Meyers and ELLEN.
ABOUT KALIE SHORR:
Kalie Shorr burst onto the Nashville music scene in 2016 with her self-penned hit "Fight Like A Girl". The Portland, Maine singer-songwriter became a Sirius XM Highway Find and was praised by Spotify, CMT, Radio Disney Country, Taste of Country, and even Billboard magazine. In 2017, Kalie released her Slingshot EP to rave reviews and was named "New Artist You Need to Know" by Rolling Stone, "The New Nashville" by Teen Vogue, and one of "2017's Hottest Artists Under 25" by Taste of Country. Her newly released single "Two Hands" has already been added to Sirius XM, Radio Disney Country and TuneIn with prominent placement on Apple Music's Breaking Country and Cool Country playlists. With a new EP coming in early 2018, Kalie was recently inducted into CMT's Next Women of Country Class of 2018. Playing over 100 shows a year, Kalie's message of female- empowerment has led to her being called the "next 'Women of Country' generation" [CMChat] and a "modern country woman [who will] continue to inspire in 2018" [
TasteofCountry.com].
ABOUT CMT: CMT is the leading authority on country music and lifestyle, offering a mix of original series, music events and specials. CMT is everywhere its fans are including two cable channels (CMT and the 24-hour music channel, CMT Music), radio (CMT Radio), digital (CMT App,
CMT.com) and social (CMT on Facebook, CMT on Instagram and CMT on Twitter). CMT is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB).